Rob Pegoraro writes for Yahoo Finance, “As I was fussing over yet another glitch on my aging iMac the other night and, while doing so, relying on my slightly less senior MacBook Air, two thoughts ran through my head: 1) I’ve probably waited long enough to replace a 2009-vintage desktop on which the optical drive and SD card slot no longer work reliably and a 2012-vintage laptop that’s seen so much use the N key’s black coating is starting to wear off. 2) If I wanted to replace either computer with a Mac that itself qualifies as ‘new,’ I might have to wait even longer.”
“As of Friday morning, the MacBook Air had gone 403 days since its last update, while the Mac mini had seen 547 days elapse since its most recent refresh, and the Mac Pro had scratched out 848 days on a jail-cell wall since its December 2013 debut,” Pegoraro writes. “Many of these computers run Intel processors a full generation behind those available in competing hardware. Contrary to Apple’s sales pitch for the current MacBook Air, the fifth-generation Intel Core i5 is not ‘new’: Intel began shipping the sixth generation last summer.”
Pegoraro writes, “It’s enough to make a Mac user wish that the company formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc., would restore its attention to computers first, spaceship-shaped corporate campuses and electric cars second.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Patience, padawan. Always in motion, the future is. Much longer now, it will not be.
This is going to be a very big year for the Mac. We’re in the quiet before the storm that begins at WWDC in June.
1. It’s pretty clear there won’t be a new MacBook Air—just new MacBooks and MacBook Pros
2. Don’t understand why Apple doesn’t upgrade CPUs as they become available–don’t need a form-factor upgrade every year but new CPUs and GPUs would be welcome.
3. MacPro’s lack of upgrades over the last 848 days is inexcusable–especially considering its supposed target market.
If the writer of this article was needing more computing power than they already have then they would have an argument. The reality is that he and most people are not even using their computer at a tenth of its capability. Even the ‘pros’ who think that they ‘need’ a more powerful computer rarely tax their existing machines and the most difference it would make to them is a few seconds quicker response in an entire day.
Is there anyone who, a few years ago, couldn’t get any work done because their computer was too slow or not powerful enough? If computers were like cars, taxi drivers would be the ‘pros’ who need the speed and yet, the traffic is their main headache rather than the horsepower of their cars. Most people would like a faster computing experience BASED ON INTERNET SPEEDS and not based on computer speed. It is the time that people are waiting for web pages to download that makes them unhappy. Is there anyone out there who get that?
If you are a Pro user it’s super frustrating!
So your point is mute really for many users that do need every ounce of processing! I don’t want to hear my fan whizzing and it over heating and the mouse skipping across the screen.
i have a fully ramped Macbook Pro 15″ Retina 1Tb 16gb current range and i feel it’s not up to what i need. every increase makes my life easier and more productive.
As a Pro user, you likely couldn’t have been working as a pro before you got your latest rMBP because the previous MBP computers had so little power as to render them useless. Your present rMBP is barely adequate according to your current lament. How can any Pro make a living when all the computers available are so incredibly underpowered except the latest Wintel machines that chase every spec known to man?
Your rMBP is so woefully inadequate that it has run out of capital letters and punctuation. Is it possible that the real problem might be the inefficient software or operator?
Are you trying to be dense? Pro users use the most powerful and productive laptops and desktops we can get. It doesn’t mean we can’t get any work done on a slower than ideal machine’s. It just takes longer.
In a world of when Time = Money, getting hard work done faster is more important than ever. Enterprise, multimedia, and engineering professionals rely on powerful computers to meet deadlines and productivity requirements. They are what drives the industry; everything from architecture to entertainment to business.
Anyone else notice how often “Reality Check” doesn’t seem to know too much about reality?
Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.
I sure hope so. When Apple came out with the new Mac Pro, I was really hoping that that was just the start of a whole line of high-end graphics workstations. Alas, they only issued that one machine and left it at that. Windows graphics workstations can now be had with as many as 36 CPU cores and 3 or even more high-end GPUs whereas the current Mac Pro tops out a 12 CPU cores and 2, 3-year-old GPUs. For me, that just does not cut it.
The pro market and great Mac Pro workstation options and timely updates is truly the one area Apple has failed the most.
I Want a New Mac Pro Tower with HD bays!
Apple can’t possibly foresee everything pro designers in the field will need. A proper extension chassis may provide one of the answers to expandability.
Maybe a bank containing disk trays, extra GPUs, room for plug-in cards, etc., inspired by the Cray-1 :
An Apple produced external GPU box with an extreme speed bus connector would be fantastic. That would put enough Pro into the trash can for me. I would add four top of the line Tesla GPUs. The Mac Pro could then run my kind of engineering software several times faster, like any top Windows PC can already do. Having to use Windows PCs just because Apple has abandoned pro users sucks.
That looks like the waiting area at some hip restaurant. 🙂
I couldn’t agree more. And Apple, KNOW your markets both consumer and pro, and design machines that truly serve both and their intended purpose. Consumers seem to be in pretty good shape but the pro market is decidedly lacking in the kinds of models we want to see. I can hear the massive happy cheers that would go up if Apple returned to the Tower form factor, but that probably won’t happen. Bottom line is I could give a crap about slimmed-down design that looks cute if it compromises my pro NEEDS.
Rob Pegoraro should re-title his article: “Everybody and their grandmother knows that Apple is coming out with new Macbook Pros in June, with Skylake Processors, USB-C Connectors, and Thunderbolt 3 — but I’ll pretend that I don’t know that, so that I can write this complaint article, and get some hits, before Yahoo News lays me off at the end of the month”
So you know this for a fact?
The only major Apple event we can count on this summer is the WWDC. That is a software and developer focused event.
Yes, hardware is sometimes announced too (like the “new” Mac Pro announcement at WWDC 2013 for hardware that would not ship for almost six months!), but significant hardware announcements of things shipping immediately are not that common at WWDC.
Further, the all encompassing USB-C chips that support all the alternate modes (including both TB3 and DP 1.3/1.4 and the rest) are not supposed to ship until late summer or this fall (late August to December time frame), which would further suggest rMBP systems not shipping until that time or later. But then again, the newest rMBP systems don’t *have* to support all the alternate modes.
I really hope so. I’m still using a 2010 MacBook Pro plugged into a 24″ monitor.
I’m ready to spend but want to see what’s coming up. i5 doesn’t cut the mustard, my work laptop is a HP EliteBook i7.
Now, lets get those fully upgradable computer with generic part and custom drivers where we can waste our precious time syncing software with OS and hardware. Plz Apple. Let it be!!
As Gruber suggests, this may be the end of the line for the “Air” models.
I do wish Apple paid more attention to the pro market, both hardware and software.
Maybe they are about to reinvent the computer and turn the market on its head? No. Computers are a dying breed.
I really really can’t believe they STILL DON’T have a mac mini with a quad core !!!!! Look’s like my next computer will be a wintel. This is NOT what I want to do. I do NOT want to buy a wintel, but if Apple won’t sell me what I am wiling to pay, for then that’s it. I’m saying I want to give my money to Apple, but I can’t just buy the thing cause it has a Apple logo on it.
‘Still’? They had quad-core i7 Mac Minis (I’m typing this on one) but in their infinite genius they stopped making it, ostensibly to force creative types (like Logic Pro users) into a more expensive iMac or even ‘new’ Mac Pro.
I believe they stopped putting quad cores into the Mac mini to prevent sales cannibalization.
Removing the ability to upgrade RAM on a Mac mini, though, I thought was an even dumber decision. I have a 2011 Mac mini with 16GB of RAM (yes, it works, despite what Apple says), AND I put a 250GB Samsung SSD in it. It was like buying a new computer at 1/4 of the price.
Apple has got to do something with the Mac minis. I say they should put a quad core back in it, more RAM to start off with (8GB is okay, 16GB is preferred), and have an SSD option, if not just put SSD in there to begin with.
Apple’s product line needs a lot of polishing, frankly. As an Apple salesperson, I’ve been outselling iPad to Mac almost 3:1. Apple’s clearly neglected their Mac lineup for far too long. I hope that they do something, and soon.
I’ve been patient for nearly a year, but I can tell you that my customers aren’t.
Back in the day, a computer called the Amiga, had it’s OWN custom graphics chipset. I know it’s probably asking too much for Apple to have it’s own CPU AND custom graphics chipset using a Pixar on a chip tech. But then again people keep asking what should Apple do with all that X-tra money. Making their OWN computer cpu may be out of the question. No matter how much money Apple has, that doesn’t mean they could have more expertise on technology, for STAYING AHEAD of Intel. but hey…
AMD is out there, and Apple does mobile.
Apple’s product development is not hindered by lack of resources, but by lack of leadership.
THAT my friend is strictly a matter of opinion – yours. While there are area’s that can stand improvement (as always with everything and everyone) at Apple as we’ve been discussing, overall TC has done a fine job.
I’d sure like to see your job evaluation report. My guess is it comes up wanting. That is assuming of course you even HAVE a job.
Poor form, Peter. You don’t have to act like such an asshole when Mike challenges your worldview. You should know very well that Apple has the capital to do anything it puts its mind to doing. So what precisely do you believe is the reason that Apple is so slow in releasing Mac updates?
That’s YOUR opinion too. (And btw Mike has never worried about sounding like an asshole so it’s tit for tat, regardless of form. Attacking leadership blindly without any idea of what’s truly going on behind the scenes smacks of specious assholery.)
I’m sure Apple is waiting for more substantial hardware and component improvements to justify new Mac models that meet their internal approval. While their mobile product line needs more urgent updating their Mac line seems to have more leeway, unfortunately. I hope they can fix that. Especially in the pro models.
So you attack Mike and Green for agreeing with the article that MDN posted?
You are just a fanboy willing to give Apple’s lazy Mac product planners enough rope to hang themselves. They are losing the pro markets one by one. Anyone can see that.
And you’re just a gigantic sanctimonious loser who doesn’t understand that the article is also a matter of opinion (hmm, analysts and tech writers are often wrong? Wow! You sound incredibly gullible.) and opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and in many case, like you and others here, ARE one.
In fact I am giving Apple one more WWDC and new Mac Pro upgrade model before deciding on switching. So yes I am giving them the benefit of the doubt because no one knows what is going on in Cupertino with any certainty and miracles do happen. Thanks for the nothing & unthinking contribution.
It’s fine that you can continue being patient with Apple. Nothing wrong with that.
But Apple’s inexplicable slowness to regularly update the specs of laptops and desktops that they label “Pro” has caused years of real pain for those of us who dearly need the speed easily obtainable with Windows and Linux, but want to use Mac OS.
We have every right and reason to be unhappy with Apple.
The Mac Pro is a great “Mac”, but an insanely bad “Mac Pro” relative to Pro PC’s from every other PC maker.
Oh I’m with you on that. I’ve been happy with everything Apple EXCEPT the pro line, NONE too happy. My pro friends who do use PC’s are uniformly united in their hatred of Windows 10 though and stick with 7. The problem with PC’s as a Mac user are the compromises of course. Not everything is a panacea and there are always tradeoffs between platforms. The irritating thing is it would be no skin off Apple’s nose to give pro’s what they truly want and need. Not some fanciful peccadillo of design that serves relative few and proving a bigger size DOES matter.
Just one more WWDC and new Mac Pro announcement away from deciding to go Mac or PC for my pro work.I don’t use Logic or FCPX so it’s simpler.
To paraphrase the character of Susan from CITIZEN KANE “You never really give me anything pro that I really care about!” 🙂
Agree on all points, including sticking with Windows 7 as the least-worst Windows option!
So many people seem to be in this exact same leaky boat that I really hope Apple comes up with a solution.
Amen to that!
Ah, the illusive Mac Pro mini-tower with slots. The most desired non-existent machine Apple never made. Let’s just call it the MacGodot.
Never made?
What would you call the Mac IIcx and the Mac IIci? (I actually had one of each at one point.)
Yes, we haven’t seen their ilk for over two decades, but not never.
Power Computing had towers down too. Sadly Jobs puts clones out of business since they were actually giving people what they wanted. (I of course am being facetious, or am I?)
The biggest problem with the clones was that in the end they cost Apple more in letting them in the market than Apple benefitted by growing the market. Which they didn’t do, they just skimmed off part of Apple’s (mostly) high end.
Sun Microsystems had some internal groups that tended to use Macs, rather than Windows PCs, for tasks that Sun’s workstations didn’t make sense to use. Technical publications, product design, and usability testing in some divisions, for example. Our experience with Mac clones wasn’t always that great, with little hardware and peripheral reliability issues.
The niche that some of the cloners found to fit was in upper-end models, which they could begin to produce and sell earlier in the processor development cycle, before quantities that Apple would need to have in place before committing to a new model.
All that aside, it was an interesting time to be a Mac user.
Yep, I remember all the problems for Apple. Also a great Macworld in SF in the 90’s where the Power Computing guys were out in full force. It was a hoot.
Power Computing handed out stickers with cartoon characters like Sluggo and phrases like “You can have my Mac when you pry my cold dead fingers from my mouse,” and “Let’s kick Intel’s ass!”
Power Computing only sold online. When Steve cancelled their clones he also acquired their sales force and site builders, resulting in the Apple Store online. So my decrepit memory tells me.
It was kind of a fun, if short-lived & uncertain, period in Apple’s history before the Jobs correction kicked in.
I added a SSD drive to my 2009 Mac Mini and it made it into a brand new machine. Harder to do that with an iMac but definitely possible.
Either wait for the new macs in June or see if Apple are throwing out some discounts ahead of this to clear inventory. Sometimes you can get a very good deal.
Apple is two generations behind on Intel processors: Broadwell and Skylake.
Fire Tim Cook.
I think you’re behind.
iMacs are on Skylake and many MacBook Pros and Airs are on Broadwell.
Pay attention the the Greek Myth-named buildings that Apple has been buying and refurbishing – what they were and what they may become soon.
Greeks were a homosexual society.
That’s the only connection.
And it’s obvious Cook and his cohorts no longer care about Apple or its customers or just making it work.
I like MDN, but when you start quoting science fiction, you’re just ignoring the issue.
How hard can it be for Apple to update processors.
Maybe if Cook wasn’t galavanting around the world promoting his homosexuality….
In a way I think we’re seeing the downside of the “walled garden” or whatever, the ecosystem we’ve chosen with Apple. It takes a lot of patience, because you know the next revision of all of their products will be super sweet… but the waiting has gotten to be ridiculous. Maybe they’re doing too much, it was Mr. Jobs who was famous for killing products that didn’t fit and keeping the company focused on innovation first. One thing’s for sure they’re going to get a lot of macbook pro users ready to upgrade to a new laptop. Maybe it’s a good time to pick up some shares….
There is so much I want Apple to do. Some things include –
– Amazon Echo type device with Siri for home
– Open Siri up so that third parties can access
– iMessage needs to go cross platform and offer apps for Windows and Android
Apple and IBM are playing nice lately. Watson powering Siri would be awesome. Dollars to doughnuts, they are working on it. I’d love to ask Siri, “If Black castles and I sacrifice my Queen to expose his King, is there any way his knights can move to prevent checkmate?”
TEDCUCK is too busy with stinking liberals and promoting deviant and unhealthy lifestyles. Sickening stuff. He won’t even bring his gay lover along in public, hiding him behind walls. Get this idiot off the stage ASAP.
The prices of the old Mac Towers in good shape look to be increasing and the three people who bought the trashcan are ready to upgrade to a real computer.
I have Terrabytes of data and have no interest in cloud storage. A nice Mac Tower with standardized internal storage that takes standard cards would be nice. If Apple didn’t price it like it was minted from gold it could sell very well.
Tim, if you won’t give us a proper Mac workstation, license the OS to a third party builder. I do not give a damn about how thin the case is.
Completely agree. I’m surprised at how Apple is now 4th in computer sales world wide and they show so little attention to the computer line. I’m thrilled mobile devices such as the iPad have lost some of their luster. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPad but it just doesn’t work for serious photography. Maybe Apple will go back to making computers again AS WELL AS iPads/iPhones. At one time, several years ago I was concerned they may give up on computers all together but given the recent drop in sales of iPads I’m hopeful they may want to get in to products that have higher profits and are helpful to the serious computing sector. There are plenty of things I can’t do on my iPhone or iPad like serious photography. I’m also wondering if they may rethink the demise of Aperture, another bonehead move. Thankfully Mylio has filled the roll of keeping track of al my images on all my devices and without having to move those images to the cloud. Apple can’t even handle my 20TB photo library. Without Aperture I’m now loving Mylio for DAM, DXO Optics Pro for hard core image editing. And one more thing, Apple’s decision to kill aperture took my enthusiasm for al their products down from a +10 to about 7.
There is no greater enemy than a lover spurned.